1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a checkin gate apparatus for checking passengers for passenger transport means such as airplanes.
2. Description of Prior Art
In the case of passenger transport means such as airplanes whose seats are all to be reserved, there are cases where some non-booked passengers can board a plane only after once reserved seats have been cancelled. In these cases, the checkin of booked passengers in ended about 20 minutes before the airplane departure, and all the seats unoccupied so far are regarded as being cancelled and allocated to non-booked passengers. In this case, conventionally, unoccupied seats are allocated to the non-booked passengers at the counter where air tickets are exchanged with boarding cards. Therefore, non-booked passengers who receive a boarding card (on which a cancelled seat is assigned) at the reservation counter pass through a security gate, go to a boarding gate for checkin, and then board an airplane.
In practice, however, since a distance between a reservation counter and a boarding gate is relatively far in many airports, it takes considerable time from when non-booked passengers receive a boarding card at the counter to when they go on a plane. Therefore, the departure of airplane tends to be delayed due to non-booked passengers who are waiting for cancelled seats. In addition, when these non-booked passengers are kept at a security gate or take much time to pass through the security gate, the departure is still further delayed. On the other hand, since unoccupied seats must be allocated to non-booked passengers at the reservation counter, there exists another problem in that the number of clerks inevitably increases.